Presidential Election Was Anything But Free And Fair, Says Peter Obi

He said: “There is nothing to reconcile because we are not quarrelling with them. We are quarrelling with the process that declared them winners.

Peter Obi, Vice Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), says the presidential election was “anything but transparent, free and fair”.

He also accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of manipulating the elections in their favour by deliberately flouting the laid-down rules given by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on the use of Smart Card Readers.

He spoke in Onitsha, Anambra State, on Monday, where restated the commitment of his party to take up the matter in court.

He said: “There is nothing to reconcile because we are not quarrelling with them. We are quarrelling with the process that declared them winners.

“Every competition has its own rules. You can’t go into a football competition and score from the offside and say it should be accepted. This is even worse than scoring from offside. They went and threw in the ball into the goal post when nobody was there.

“We can’t continue with election rigging, incompetence and nepotism which are worse than corruption in any society.”

Thanking Nigerians for their support and consoling with the families of those that were attacked during the elections, he added: “I was touched by the eagerness with which Nigerians came out to fulfill their civic duties of voting in the over 119,000 polling booths scattered all over Nigeria.

“I also condole with the families of those that lost their lives and those that sustained various degrees of injuries during the election.”

Speaking further on the electoral process, he continued: “The election was anything but a transparent, free and fair election, which certainly fell far below the standard established by the 2015 presidential election.

“While some zones voted strictly using the card readers, other zones, as part of the manipulation orchestrated by the ruling party, APC were allowed to vote without card readers contrary to the guidelines INEC issued before the election.

“Though elections give citizens a means to hold their leaders accountable by voting incumbents out of office or promising to hold to account those leaders successfully elected, the process is more important than the outcome as the rule of law must always prevail.

“Thus, the consequences of Nigeria without the rule of law will be unimaginable chaos and tyranny.”